


Faking It

by buckthegrump



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Hate to Love, the smallest amout of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-06-06 15:28:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 15,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15197759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckthegrump/pseuds/buckthegrump
Summary: You and Bucky have never gotten along for longer than 30 seconds. In fact, you’ve tried to spend as little time together as possible. So what happens when Fury sends you on a mission where the two of you have to pretend to be a couple?





	1. Prologue

Prologue

* * *

 

“Y/n this is your new assignment,” Fury says handing you a folder.

You take it and start to look through it. It was the monthly meeting were Fury would give out assignments. You hadn’t been on a mission in a month or two and you were looking forward to getting back in the field.

“You will be going undercover with Barnes,” Fury says. 

Both you and Bucky briefly glare at each other before looking to Fury.

“Sir, there’s really no need I can do it myself,” Bucky states.

“With all due respect sir, how do you expect Bucky to go unnoticed? He’s got a metal arm,” you reason.

“Your mission!” Fury bellows silencing the two of you. “Is to find out everything you can about Victor Fleming.”

“That’s an unfortunate name,” you scoff.

“Oh and Y/n Y/l/n isn’t?” Bucky smirks while you glare at him.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Fury mutters, “Victor is someone we believe to have had ties with HYDRA in the past. He also looks like the kind of mother fucker to pick up where HYDRA left off so I need the two of you to do whatever you can to gather information and report back to HQ. He was last spotted in Amalfi, Italy.”

“Oh god,” you quietly groan knowing where he was going with this.

“What?” Bucky asks you instead of Fury.

“The two of you will be posing as a couple.” Fury’s smile told you that he was having too much fun with this.

You stay silent as you glare at Fury and Bucky just starts moaning and groaning.

“You leave in the morning,” Fury says.

You continue to glare and Bucky starts to protest.

“You’re dismissed!” Fury yells and you and Bucky rush out of the room.

You run off to your room to avoid any more contact with Bucky than absolutely necessary.

Avoiding Bucky had become second nature to you since you joined the team. When you first met him you tried your best to act professional around him. It didn’t take long for Sam to start teasing you and others in the team soon followed which you could take but when Bucky joined it you felt like you could strangle him. So, you stopped acting so professional and soon the bickering was never-ending.

You had no clue how you and Bucky were going to be even mildly successful on this mission when all you knew about Bucky was what was in his files and the fact that he got on your last nerve. Spend the foreseeable future pretending to be in love with Bucky was going to drive you insane.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t that you hated Bucky necessarily, it was that his general presence near you pissed you off. You had empathy for his past and his current situation but for some reason, the two of you could not find a way to coexist in the same room without trying to rip off each other's head.

You were packing your bag when Natasha and Wanda came into your room. They sit on your bed avoiding the things you have laid out to pack.

“Knock next time,” you say a little harsh because you were already annoyed.

“Fine but when is next time going to be?” Natasha asks, “Because I hear that you are going on a mission with the one and only Bucky Barnes.”

“Ugh don’t remind me,” you groan.

“Why don’t you like Bucky again?” Wanda wonders out loud, “He’s always nice to me.”

“I’ve told you a million times Wanda,” you sigh, “Barnes and I are just two people that don’t get along.”

“And I just think they don’t know how to work through sexual tension,” Natasha told Wanda.

“Nat, keep saying shit like that and I’ll kill you in your sleep,” you glare at her.

“I’d like to see you try,” she challenges.

“Don’t tempt me,” you say through your teeth.

Natasha backs off a little but continues to smile knowing that she got under your skin.

“Ok but you’re going to Italy, so that’s fun!” Wanda says trying to cheer you up.

“It would be if I wasn’t going with Barnes,” Natasha said mocking you.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Wanda tells you as if you were the one who said that.

“What do you know about Victor Fleming?” You ask ignoring their comments about Bucky.

“Victor Fleming is an old hired muscle man who happened to stumble into building his own empire. I think he started his own thing of offering not so nice people as muscle men or something,” Natasha shrugged.

“I hear he’s got a girlfriend, Lacey or something like that,” Wanda says.

“Where would you have heard that?” You ask and Natasha looks at Wanda confused.

“I hear things,” Wanda says defensively. 

You finish packing basically every piece of clothing you own, not sure how long you would be on this mission or what you might need. When you finally get the stupid thing closed you go to the lab. Shuri is there going over something with Bucky. You walk over next to her and wait for her to be done.

“So it won’t have the same range of motion because it was such short notice but no one should be able to tell the difference, and you can take the regular one in case you need it,” Shuri tells him.

“Thanks, Shuri,” Bucky smiles at her and walks away with a case in his hand.

“Hey Y/n,” she says typing something into a tablet.

“Whatcha got for me princess?” You smile at her.

“I thought I told you to stop calling me that?” She looks at you.

“I’ll stop calling you that when I get my jacket back.”

“You’re not getting that jacket back I love it,” she states.

“Then I shall continue to call you princess,” you respond and she sighs.

“Anyway I don’t have anything for you except communication devices,” she says handing you the case, “Fury was very firm with the whole no special gadgets.”

“But Barnes gets something?” You ask with disgust.

“Barnes doesn’t call me princess,” she says and walks away.

“I only call you princess sometimes,” you call after her but she continues to walk. 

You take a smaller bag down to the armory to pack the essentials and run into Bucky who seemed to be doing the same thing. You watch him carefully pack every weapon imaginable.

“We’re going to Italy for recon, not to personally take out every criminal they have,” you say.

He glares at you zipping up his bag.

“Should I even bother packing weapons?” You ask his back as he walks out of the room.

You do, but only a small gun and a knife or two. 

“Y/l/n, Barnes,” Fury’s voice calls out and you got to him, he hands you and Bucky two passports and boarding tickets, “here are your travel papers, enjoy your trip.”

“We don’t have fake names?” You ask.

Fury ignores your question and but listens to Bucky’s. 

“We’re not taking the quinjet?” Bucky asks.

“No, it makes more sense for the two of you to travel like tourists, don’t worry about getting everything through security it’ll be taken care of,” Fury says, “Your car and driver will be here shortly.”

“Yes sir,” Bucky says.

“Try not to fuck this up,” Fury says looking directly at you and you open your mouth but the look Fury gives you stops you.

“I’ll go get my plane stuff then,” you say turning your back.

“Don’t keep the driver waiting,” Fury calls after you.

“The driver isn’t even here yet!” You yell back running back to your room.

You make it back out front just in time to see the driver pull up. You grab your suitcase and put it in the trunk with Bucky’s. The ride to the airport was silent except for the radio which was drawing attention to the tension between you and Bucky.

Once at the airport, you check your bags and begin to make your way through security. You spent the entire time on edge remembering that you are trying to go undercover with an Avenger but no one seems to care. Then there’s also the fact that at some point between here and Italy you and Bucky have to start acting like a couple in love.

“I’m going to go get some food,” Bucky says getting up from his spot.

“Will you get me some fires and a soda?” You ask as he walks away.

“No,” he says not turning back to look at you.

You slouch back in your seat. You wait for him to come back so you don’t leave your carry-ons unattended. He’s got for what feels like 20 minutes but is probably actually closer to 7. He comes back with a McDonald's bag. He sits and hands you a soda and some fries.

“Thanks,” you say.

“Don’t sound so surprised, you are my girlfriend,” he says.

“Oh now?” you ask and he nods. You look around and lean close to him and whisper, “I didn’t get a name did you?”

“No, why would I?” He says with his mouth full of his burger.

“Maybe because we’re undercover and not many people are called Bucky,” you say keeping your voice low.  

“So just call me James,” he says continuing to eat.

You start in on your fries content with that idea, since you had only recently joined the Avengers and haven’t really had the opportunity to get your name or face out there, you could just use your name.

“Flight 239 to Amalfi.” 

You and Bucky stood and headed towards the gate. He places his hand on the small of your back and you almost react in some way before you remember that he’s supposed to do things like that.

This was going to be a very long mission.


	3. Chapter 3

You were a step behind Bucky on the plane and when it got to your aisle he slid all the way into the window seat. You sat next to him and frowned.

“I wanted the window seat,” you whined.

“Sounds like a you problem,” Bucky says with a wink.

“Yeah but I’m still going to complain and because you’re my boyfriend you have to listen to it,” your emphasis makes Bucky roll his eyes.

“Well your boyfriend doesn’t care,” he whispers into your ear.

“Doesn’t matter I’m still gonna complain about it,” you whisper back. “And as my boyfriend, you are required to listen to every complaint I have ever about anything for the rest of time.”

He rolls his eyes and leans back in his seat. 

“Keep rolling your eyes like that and someone might rip them out,” you tell him.

You pull out your phone and headphones getting ready for the flight. 

You noticed something out of the corner of your eye and you did a double take before taking Bucky’s left arm into your hand.

“What the hell? This isn’t metal,” you whisper as you examine the arm.

“Yeah, Shuri made it for undercover,” he whispers back forcing his arm out of your hand.

You sat in silence until it was time for the safety speech. When the plane was finally taking off you put your headphones on and lean your head back. It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep.

Bucky had never been one to be an asshole right out, but you just got on his every nerve. He didn’t know why and it wasn’t like you continuously went out of your way to annoy him, but sometimes when you opened your mouth to talk all he heard was the sound the adults make in that Peanuts show. 

He looked at his new arm, inspected it really. His left hand looked almost like his right one, but he could see the difference. He liked the obvious metal one because it wasn’t trying to be something it wasn’t but this one, this one just didn’t feel right on him. 

This one felt like he was trying to go back to who he was in the forties and as much as he would like to be that person he wasn’t. Too much had happened to him for him to just forget about what had happened, what he’d done. So instead of dwelling on what he was, he would focus on becoming who’s he’s meant to be. 

He looked over to you. Not even ten minutes into the flight and you’re already asleep. 

He turned on the TV screen in front of him and tried to find a movie that looked interesting enough to watch. After he finally saw a movie that he thought he heard one of his teammates mention he turned it on and felt something on his shoulder.

He looked over to see you with your head leaning against him, normally he would try and move your head away. But turns out you weren’t annoying when you were asleep, so he left you.

He continued to watch the movie, it looked like it would be targeted towards children but the longer he watched it the more he was convinced that it wasn’t.

You woke up to someone gently shaking your leg.

“Hey,” a low deep voice said, “did you want anything to eat or drink.”

You were still groggy from your nap but found the mental capacity to answer. You look over only to be reminded of what was going on. You looked at the screen in front of Bucky and noticed what movie he was watching. 

“Why are you watching the Lion King?” You ask.

“I remember someone mentioning it back home and I’d never seen it. Is this movie made for children?”

“Yes,” you chuckle. 

“Then why the hell would they kill off the dad?” He asks dumbfounded. “What kind of sick minded people are like ‘Oh ya know what, let’s take Hamlet but make it for kids’?”

“I’m surprised you got that it was based on Hamlet so quickly,” you say.

“Well I’m not an idiot, Y/n,” he says.

“Could’ve fooled me,” you say turning your attention to your food.

Bucky huffed and went back to watching the movie, you silently watch it out of the corner of your eyes. You’ve seen it enough times to know what was going on at each part. Once you got bored with that you turn on the screen in front of you and look at all the different Disney movies they have. The flight didn’t seem so long after having a movie marathon.

After your third movie, you felt Bucky tap your shoulder.

“You should try to get some more sleep before we get there,” he says.

“But I want to watch Hercules,” you say and right when you’re about to tap the icon Bucky stops you.

“You should sleep, because I don’t want to deal with you when you’re grumpy from being jet-lagged,” he reasons.

Maybe it was the altitude but you didn’t hear the normal bite that was usually in his voice, but you assumed it was there anyway.

“And what’s the excuse you have for being constantly grumpy and making everyone put up with that?” You ask.

He just stares at you in response and you tap the screen and it starts playing the movie. 

Before you had even gotten to the part where Hercules is taken from Mount Olympus to earth, you had fallen asleep again. The only reason you knew that was because if it hadn’t been for your seatbelt you would’ve jumped out of your seat when the plane’s wheels hit the ground. You saw Bucky’s body tremble with laughter at that sight of that.

“Stop,” you say trying not to laugh. 

After getting off the plane you and Bucky fought over who would drive the rental car. Bucky won and took the keys out of your hands. 

The drive to the hotel was longer than you originally thought so you took the time to figure out where Victor was staying.

“How are you going to do that with just a cell phone?” Bucky asks.

“I’ll have you know that I’m very good at my job Barnes, I didn’t get where I am today by getting injected with a serum to make me super strong,” you say just a little annoyed.

“Not really what I meant but ok,” Bucky mocks.

“Listen you wanted to drive so just get us to where we need to go ok?”

“What do you think I’m doing?” His asks sounding more and more annoyed by the second.

“Pissing me off like you normally do!”

“Ah for fucks sake,” Bucky snapped.

“Oh yeah and like you’ve had no problem with me this entire trip?”

“Can you just do your job in silence please?” He barks.

You look at him for a moment and can’t stop staring at a vein that’s popping out of his neck. You’d never noticed it before, now it would be fun to see how far you had to push him to get that vein to pop out again. You turn back to your phone and get back to finding Victor.


	4. Chapter 4

The hotel was a lot nicer than you were expecting and something told you that Tony Stark had something to do with that. 

“Fury would never shell out for us to stay in a place like this,” Bucky scoffs, vocalizing your thoughts.

“Tony must have made the reservations, alright time to put your game face on,” you say.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“We’re supposed to be a couple so we have to act-”

“Couple-y,” Bucky finishes your sentence.

“See James, you’re a natural already,” you smile and grab his free hand.

“I should’ve given you a different name,” he sighs quietly and you aren’t sure if you’re supposed to hear him or not.

“Hi, we’re checking in last name Barnes,” Bucky tells the person at the front desk.

“Oh yes, here’s your key and congratulations on your wedding,” he says with a smile.

You and Bucky stand there with shocked expressions on your face.

“Sorry what?” You ask with a smile that seemed to be scaring the concierge.

“The person who made the reservation said that the couple wants the full honeymoon package,” he says looking fearful.

Bucky looked at you and you rolled your eyes.

“It’s not a problem sir, our friends think that they’re funny,” Bucky says, “Um are there any activities that come with that package?”

“Um no just the room, and a romantic dinner for tonight,” he answers.

“Ok great, thank you,” Bucky smiles and takes the key from the concierge.

You and Bucky walk up to the room and Bucky walks in first pauses and laughs. You walk and stand next to him looking at what is making him laugh.

“Of course there’s one bed,” Bucky scoffs and turns away.

“Well, ya know Stark likes to fuck with us,” you sigh, “I call dibs on the bed.”

“Of course you do,” Bucky glares at you.

You open your suitcase and start to place your belongings in one of the dressers. You can hear Bucky moaning and groaning in discomfort. You ignore it for a while but he keeps going.

“Are you ok?” You ask it came out a little more harshly than you expected.

“It’s the new arm,” he growls.

“What about it?” 

“It doesn’t feel right,” he says scratching at his shoulder.

“If you keep scratching at it your shoulder will scar more,” you tell him. 

He glares at you and stops but you can see his hand twitching with the need to scratch at it again. 

“Well, we’re alone you can take it off,” you tell him.

He looks at you for a moment and you raise your eyebrow.

“I need help,” he admits.

“Ok but I don’t know what I’m doing,” you say putting down the things you were holding.

“That’s fine I’ve watched Shuri do it enough times I can talk you through it,” he tells you sitting down on one of the chairs. He removes his shirt and looks at you. 

“Of course you have because you’re a giant nerd,” you scoff.

“Ok, so what you’re going to do -” he says ignoring your comment.

He talks you through disconnecting the arm, it was simple enough but you were afraid to mess it up, so you were going painfully slow. He continued to groan and would reach up to scratch at it and you would smack his hand away.

“Please for the love of god hurry up,” Bucky says.

“Ok well I don’t want to fuck it up this is your only human looking arm, and it might alarm people if you came with an arm and leave without one!” Your volume was hushed but your tone was raging.

“I don’t think you’re smarter than Shuri, full offense.”

“I never claimed to be  _ James,  _ I just thought -”

“Shuri is smarter than that, and it would take a genius to fuck up something she made,” Bucky says.

“Well fuck you, you don’t know how truly I can fuck things up without even trying,” you brag.

“That’s not something to brag about,” Bucky says as you finish disconnecting the arm.

“Well at least I’m not a fucking nerd,” you say handing him the arm.

“Yeah well at least I’m not -” he lets his sentence trail off.

You turn back to unpacking and ignore him until dinner came. It was supposed to be a romantic dinner, they brought up their special pasta of the night and champagne. The first half of dinner was so awkwardly silent.

“I think we should try and get as close as we can to Fleming,” you say.

Bucky looks up at you, he’s looking at you like you’re crazy.

“No, he’s a hired hitman, he -”

“It’s the best option, we could get close to him,” you tell him.

“No,” Bucky firmly states.

“What?”

“Absolutely not,” Bucky says not budging on his opinion, “It’s not a good idea, in fact, it’s one of your worst.”

“Well that just simply not true,” you say knowing full well that you had no intention to listen to Bucky.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning you were in the lobby with Bucky, looking at a brochure with activities that couples would do. You had to drag him down here because you were insistent that you keep up the cover. You looked up and saw Victor out of the corner of your eyes. You silently tell Bucky to look to his left when he does he looks.

“We are not doing that it’s still a stupid idea,” Bucky says in a hushed tone, “please.”

“Too late,” you say and walk away from Bucky before he can stop you.

You walk over to Victor and the girl he’s with and ‘accidently’ bump into them.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry,” you apologize trying to act like you hadn’t just done that on purpose.

“Oh it’s no problem,” Victor’s girlfriend, Lacey or something, says.

“Are you sure?” You ask her.

“Of course, my name is Lauren by the way,” she says.

“I’m Y/n,” you smile at her.

You start talking with Lauren and Victor. If you didn’t know any better you would assume that they were just a really nice couple.

You felt Bucky wrap his arm around your waist. Just to make sure you look at him, he smiles at you.

“Victor, Lauren, this is James,” you introduce him.

“Hi,” Bucky sticks out his right hand and shakes both of their hands.

“Anyway, you were telling me about this restaurant,” you press Lauren.

“Yes, oh my god it’s so good,” she says and looks to Victor, “We should take them there.”

“Which one?” Victor asks.

“The little fancy one by the water.”

“Oh of course, how does tomorrow night sound? We have something planned for tonight, but we would love to take you two,” Victor says and Lauren nods her head enthusiastically.

“Oh well -” Bucky starts.

“We would love to,” You cut him off. 

You exchange numbers with Lauren and make your way back up to your room. Once you get there Bucky closes the door behind him and stands there glaring at you. You do your best to ignore him but his brooding was taking up the entire room.

“What?” you look at him.

“I told you that it was one of your worst ideas ever,” he says taking a step towards you.

“And I told you this is the best way to get the information we need and then go home,” you say aghast, “What is your issue with it?”

“My issue is that it’s dangerous and unnecessarily putting us in danger.”

“Danger is an occupational hazard,” you spit back at him.

“But unnecessary danger is not,” he responds.

“Fine we’ll find another way to get what we need, so we’ll spend more time together in this hotel room and then we can just murder each other before we actually get anything done. That sounds like a great idea Buck, I’m in,” your voice dripping in sarcasm.

“Fine we will go to dinner with them once, just ONCE and then we’ll find a different way to get it done. Deal?” He doesn’t break eye contact with you.

You shrug your shoulders and Bucky takes it as a yes.

* * *

 

“How fancy is this restaurant?” You ask Bucky who was dressed in a suit and ready to go.

“I don’t know I’ve never been,” Bucky shrugs.

“God, I wish I could just wear a fucking suit or a button up with a nice jacket,” you say throwing around the clothes you packed.

“You can,” Bucky says dully.

You look at him with a fake smile on your face.

“No I can’t because your shit won’t look good on me and, and I have a dress that’ll work but-,” you stare at the bag that the dress is in.

“But what?” He asks sounding very disinterested.

You look at him.

“I don’t know if the dress is too fancy,” you whisper.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” He asked with a little more emotion in his voice now.

“Yes.”

“Oh my god, why are you so dramatic?” He rolls his eyes.

“I’m trying to make a good impression!” You yell.

“Why? It’s not like we’re going to see them again after this,” Bucky says and then turns away from you. “Please for the love of god get dressed.”

You opt to risk being overdressed rather than underdressed. You get dressed quickly and Bucky opens the door for you when you're ready and you head out the door and make your way to the restaurant.


	6. Chapter 6

Turns out that you were only slightly overdressed which made you feel a little better. As you walk up to the restaurant you share a look with Bucky. Maybe he was right, maybe this wasn’t a good idea. But you were here and it’s too late now. 

“Everything ok?” Bucky asks.

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” 

“Ok well last chance to back out of this horrible idea,” he says.

Being the stubborn person that you are, all your previous doubts dissipated.

“It’s a great idea,” you grumble and he rolls his eyes.

They were already there when you walked in and Lauren waved you over. You grab Bucky’s right hand and lead him over to them.

“Be nice,” you whisper to Bucky still smiling at Lauren.

“I’m always nice,” he whispers back.

“I have so many memories of you not being nice, so just. . .ok?” You say again and look at him.

“I’m nice to people that aren’t you,” his smile as he says this.

“I fucking hate you,” you say before you’re in earshot of Lauren and Victor.

“Hi you two,” Lauren says getting up from her seat.

“Hi, thank you so much for inviting us out tonight,” you say.

She comes over and gives you a hug surprising you and you let out a little squeal.

“Oh we’re huggers,” she says into your ear.

“Great so how was your day?” You ask sitting down.

“Oh it was so good we went to an opera and then we went to the beach. Oh, you should really go see an opera. Do you like the theatre?” She asks and you notice Victor smile at her.

You can see the love he has for her on his face and a very small part of you wishes that you could just see them as the lovely couple that they seem to be.

“Oh, I would love to go see an opera but Mr. Grouchy pants over here is more of a homebody, it took me a long time to convince him to even take this vacation,” you say patting Bucky’s bicep.

“Well, I enjoy the comfort of my own bed what can I say,” Bucky gives you a fake smile.

“Yes but we’re on vacation sweetie,” you pout.

“And I promise we’ll do something tomorrow,” he says and you can see the annoyance in his eyes.

“Oh my god Victor,” Lauren says looking to her boyfriend.

“Yes, my love?” he smiles at her.

“We should take them on the boat tomorrow,” she says.

“Babe-” he says.

“Oh c’mon, we don’t have a lot of couple friends and I like them,” Lauren whines.

“I was going to say that, taking them on the boat was a wonderful idea. Would you two like to go?” Victor said still smiling.

“Oh well-” Bucky starts.

“Of course we would, that sounds amazing,” you finish for him.

“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Bucky says.

You and Bucky share a look and you could see the hatred in his eyes.

“Great so it’s a date then,” Lauren beams.

“Perfect,” you match her expression.

The rest of dinner is filled with small talk and the food was really good. Victor was mostly quiet and let Lauren do most of the talking, but to be fair Bucky was doing the same. When you got back to the hotel you closed the door behind you and watch Bucky and wait for his inevitable explosion.

He doesn’t say anything as he sits in the chair and waits for you to come help him take off his arm. You cautiously walk over and begin working on it. You had just relaxed thinking that he’d given up on yelling when he opened his mouth.

“I told you three times that I didn’t want to do it that way,” his voice was lower than you’d thought it’d be.

“And you failed to provide me with a different tactic so I went with my gut,” you kept your eyes focused on his arm.

“Y/n.”

“Wait,” you say finishing taking off his arm.

He stands and turns to look at you. He looks angry but not in a scary way.

“He was a hired by HYDRA and started his own thing. Y/n, why am I the only person who sees a problem with this?”

“I don’t know! Please,” you soften your voice, “just trust me.”

“Trust you? Trust you? Umm, remember that one time you almost got us killed?”

“I did no such thing you know damn well that was Steve’s plan and I was just taking orders. Besides we’re already here in it,” you shrug.

“When have you ever just followed orders? And my plan was to just set up surveillance and keep an eye on them from a distance.”

“That could take forever and I don’t want to be shacked up here with you for longer than necessary,” you say.

“Woe is me,” he whispers not meaning for you to hear.

“No, woe is ME for having to keep up with this farce.” You throw a hand in the air.

“So what now we’re just going to spend the entire day on a boat with a criminal?” 

“That is the current plan yes.”

“God, Y/n, are you trying to kill us?” He asks taking a step towards you.

“I’m trying to do my job, which is more than I can say for you,” you say getting right in his face.

The two of you were inches apart and you could almost feel his heart beating through his chest. You keep eye contact with him and that when you notice how intense and blue his eyes are. You quickly shake all the thoughts about how beautiful his eyes are out of your head intent on keeping your intensity. 

For a second, just one, your focused slipped and you let your eyes wander down to his lips and you get the sudden urge to kiss him. As quickly as the thought came it was gone, your eyes only spent a millisecond on his lips, you were hoping that he hadn’t noticed your wandering gaze. When you look back up his eyes have a different kind of intensity about them. 

His body gets just a little bit closer to you and you get another urge to close the gap between the two of you. You run off to the bathroom and close the door behind you.

You look at yourself in the mirror. 

“What the fuck was that?” You ask yourself.


	7. Chapter 7

You stare at the swimsuit options in front of you. You brought two, one was a two piece and the other one was a one piece and you were ready to pick the one piece but when you put it on there was a giant hole in it. You exhale the breath you were holding and put on the two piece. You put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt over it. You walk out of the bathroom and Bucky is sitting on the chair shirtless and waiting for you to help him put the arm back on. 

You quietly walk over and begin placing it on his shoulder. You gently stroke the skin where the prosthetic is attached. It was mindless and you didn’t notice you had done it, but Bucky did. 

He noticed the way his heart beat sped up. He noticed the burning sensation that your finger left, it lingered there long after you stopped touching him. He noticed that any time your fingers brushed up against his skin the feeling returned. So when you finished he could feel the tracks of where your fingers had been like a tapestry over his skin. 

“Ok, I’m all ready to go,” you say.

“I didn’t think we’d be swimming,” Bucky says.

“Well, the arm blends in well with the rest of your body.”

“What if they ask what happened?”

He had a point and you take a second to think of an answer.

“A car accident, and luckily the doctors were able to reattach your arm, but you still have rods and plates in there so getting through airport security is a nightmare,” you smile slightly.

“That’s funny,” Bucky deadpans.

“I’m funny,” you shrug.

“Could’ve fooled me.”

He walks over to the dresser and puts on a shirt to hide the scarring on his shoulder. Then he nods to you, telling you that he’s also ready to go.

The two of you walk out of the hotel and down to the docks to meet Victor and Lauren. The trip there was silent. You could tell that Bucky was getting more anxious the closer you got to your destination. You’d be lying if you claimed to be completely cool about this idea. But you were stubborn so you couldn’t show Bucky any hesitations.

“How are we going to know which boat is theirs?” Bucky asks you.

“Ya know that’s a good question James, maybe it’s the boat that they are on,” you say gesturing to the smaller boat with them on it. 

“I hate you,” he mutters walking towards the boat.

You barely got on the boat when Lauren comes up to you and hugs you.

“We’re so glad you came,” she smiles, it’s like she didn’t have any other facial expression, “Victor thought you weren’t going to come but I knew.”

“Of course we were going to come,” you say and look at Victor.

“Well, I didn’t know after you said that James was a homebody I assumed that he’d talked you into staying at the hotel. I tried to convince Lauren to do that but she said ‘If they show up and we’re not there what does that say about us?’ So here we are,” Victor walked over to ropes that held the boat to the dock. “Everyone ready to go?”

“Yeah I think so,” you say looking at Bucky who nodded.

“Even if you’ve forgotten anything, we aren’t going that far out so if we need to come back we can,” Lauren says and walks over to Victor.

The two of them work to get the boat seaworthy and you sit in the seating section below the deck of the boat. Bucky sits next to you and at first, keeps his hands to himself, then as if he’d just remembered that you were supposed to be in a relationship with him he leaned back in his spot and rested his arm on the back of your spot.

“Still think this is a good idea? We could fake an emergency,” he whispers in your ear.

You ignore the tightness in your chest that his breath on your neck caused, well you tried.

“I’m fine, are you?” You look at him and he smiles.

“I’m great.”

Had his smile always been that white?  Or had you just never noticed it before? It was a very nice smile, a really nice smile and you smiled back at him.

“Are you sure you’re feeling ok?” He asks laughing a little.

“I’m fine, you need to stop being so surprised when I look at you and not roll my eyes, we’re in love remember?”

“Oh, how could I forget?” He teases making you laugh. 

“Hey lovebirds,” Lauren calls to you, “C’mon up.”

You and Bucky walk up and poke your heads out and look at the town across the water as Victor drives the boat just around some rock that seemed to go up miles out of the water. 

The wind felt good across your skin, you closed your eyes for a second to take in the feeling and the smell is intoxicating. As it fills your lungs it instantly soothes you.

“Alright we’re gonna anchor here,” Victor says and you open your eyes.

“Let’s go for a swim,” Lauren says taking off her cover.

You carefully follow suit and then she jumps into the water. You jump in after and spend the next hour or so swimming around in the water.

“James, come on in!” Lauren calls.

You turn to look at him, he makes eye contact with you. You raise your eyebrow in a silent question.

“I will stay up here for a bit, you two have fun,” Bucky tells to you even though Lauren asked him.

“What about you Victor?” You ask glance away from Bucky for a minute.

“I’ll just hang out up here,” Victor says.

“Oh, Victor please?” Lauren pleads.

“In a minute my love,” he smiles at Lauren, “You’ll have much more to gossip about with Y/n if I stay up here anyway.”

“Fine,” she says swimming back to you, “So what do you think they’re talking about?”

“Probably what they do for a living,” you blurt realizing you never went over basic backstory with Bucky.

“Oh yes, what does Bucky do?” She asks.

“Not really sure because everytime he starts to talk about it I kind of zone out,” you say, “Not that I'm not interested, it’s just it sounds so boring.”

You hear Bucky laugh and you look at him. He makes eye contact with you before looking back at Victor.

“Oh, I know every time Victor brings up another client or anything I’m like what?” She sighs. “The only good thing is that one of his clients wanted him to meet him out here. And Victor says we have to throw them a party tomorrow, oh my god you guys should come!”

“To the client’s party?”

“Yes, of course, it’ll be so much fun and I would feel so much better, knowing someone there,” she says and then gives you her puppy dog eyes, “Please?”

“Send me the details and I’ll see what I can do.”

She smiles and thanks you. You duck your head underwater and start swimming around hoping to avoid accepting any more invitations because Bucky might murder you if you do. You loved swimming in salt water because it didn’t bother you to open your eyes underwater every once in a while.

But that didn’t stop you from getting caught on something while underwater. You weren’t too worried at first. You started to freak out when you couldn’t get unstuck and you needed to go up for air.


	8. Chapter 8

“So,” Victor says taking a seat next to Bucky, “what do you think they’re talking about?”

“Us,” Bucky said watching you closely.

“Yeah, so how did you two meet?” Victor asks.

Bucky panics for a moment knowing that the two of you hadn’t gone over a backstory together like rookies.

“We had a mutual friend who introduced us,” Bucky looks over at Victor.

“And was it love at first sight?” 

At that Bucky laughs loudly and notices you looking at him. He makes eye contact with you.

“I’ll take that as a no?” Victor chuckles.

Bucky looks back at him.

“No it was not, it actually took us a long time to even tolerate each other, but then I guess we just kind of grew on each other and the rest is history,” Bucky shrugs, “What about you two?”

“I actually met her at a party for work and she was very apprehensive about going on a date with me at first. But after we ran into each other a few more times coincidentally, she agreed,” Victor takes a sip of his beer, “God speaking of which, Lauren will kill me if I don’t invite you two. I’m throwing a party for one of my clients, we would love it if you and Y/n came.”

“I have a feeling that Y/n is going to force me to go but it does sound like fun,” Bucky smiles.

He looks back to you in time to see you duck underwater. He can see you swim through the ocean until you get further down and closer to the boat. He waits a moment for you to come back up. He knew you could hold your breath for a while but not this long.

He doesn’t even take off his shirt before jumping into the water after you. He can see your body thrashing about trying to get unstuck. He swam faster towards you just as you stopped thrashing about he didn’t bother trying to save the swimsuit top ripping off the back he then pulled you up to the surface. He swam you back to the boat and Victor helped get you onboard. Victor laid you down and Bucky practically pushed him out of the way in a rush to start CPR on you. He started compression and with everyone in the back of his head, he heard your voice.

‘Jesus Barnes, you’re trying to save me not break my ribs and have one puncture my lungs!’

“C’mon, wake up,” he begged unaware of the audience he had.

He leaned down and started mouth to mouth, when he started compressions again you coughed up water and started breathing. He let out a sigh of relief and placed his forehead on your chest.

“James,” you croak, “that was the worst kiss ever.”

He laughs into your chest. He felt your hand on his head stroking his hair. Bucky doesn’t move until he feels you shift under him trying to get up. When you sit up your swim top starts to fall off before you catch it.

“James,” you whispered, “this isn’t going to stay on.”

“Yeah sorry about that, I didn’t try to keep it intact when I was saving you.”

“Ok, but my only other top I have is mostly see through.”

“Fuck,” he chuckles lightly, “Don’t worry you can borrow mine.”

“James, your scars,” you whisper.

“They aren’t that noticeable,” he whispers back.

You open your mouth but before you could say anything else, Bucky takes off his wet shirt and hands it to you. 

“This is wet,” you tell him taking it.

“Well it’s all I have, just be glad it’s a darker color,” he says.

He was still trying to catch his breath from the events that had just taken place. Bucky gets up and walks over to Victor who had already started to get the boat ready to go back to shore.

“We’ll take you back,” Victor says anticipating Bucky’s request.

“Thank you,” Bucky offers him a small smile which Victor returned.

The ride back to shore was heavy and not much was said, the only words spoken were between Victor and Lauren. Bucky sat next to you which his hand placed on the other side of you with his arm barely touching your back.

When the boat was all tied up at the dock, Bucky stood and offered you his hand. He pulled you up to your feet only for you to fall into him.

“Sorry,” you whisper, “My legs feel like jello.”

“It’s all good,” he says and then lifts you into his arms.

You were about to protest when you remembered, he’s a super soldier and he lifted you like it was nothing. 

“We’ll see ya later,” Lauren smiled at you and Bucky, and you bid her goodbye.

Bucky carries you until the end of the dock when you finally tell him to put you down.

“If you fall again -” he starts.

“I’m not going to fall again,” you tell him squirming in his grasp, “I can feel my legs so put me down.”

“Fine princess,” he says and obliges.

You walk the rest of the way back to the hotel. Bucky was always just one step behind you in case you fell again. Bucky was keeping a close eye on you not only because you had fallen the one time but also because he was afraid that you might get into trouble again and almost die. 

His heart was still racing from that and he couldn’t get it to stop. He knew that if anything had happened to you on this mission he would’ve gotten the heat from the entire team, but it wasn’t just that. 

It was the way his heart fell when you didn’t come back up. The feeling that tore through his entire being when he saw you thrashing about trying to get unstuck, and the even worse feeling he got when you stopped. It was the need to get you breathing again when he got you on the boat. It was the knowledge that he wasn’t going to be the same if you hadn’t started breathing again. 

So he kept a close eye on you, he knew it was annoying you he could see that. But he’d rather you be annoyed than go through another trauma today, or ever. When the two of you finally made it back to the hotel you instantly grabbed a change of clothes and rushed into the bathroom. 

Bucky sat on the chair facing the TV. Faintly in the distance, he could hear the shower turn on but he was more focused on what had taken today to figure out.

You were an important part of his life, he considered you a part of his family. Sure you teased him but not once had you brought his past into one of your fights and he really appreciated that. He looked toward the bathroom door when you opened it.

“Did you want help taking off your arm?” You asked.

You didn’t wait for him to answer walking over to him and started taking off his arm. When your fingers started tracing his skin, in the same way, they had every time you helped him with his arm, he leaned into your touch. 

“Lauren invited us to a party,” you blurt.

“Hmm,” Bucky hums not really focused on what you’re saying.

“I told her we would go,” you say tentatively.

“Of course you did,” he scoffs lightly, “It’s fine I basically told Victor the same thing.”

“You did?”

“Yeah your plan is actually working,” Bucky admits.

You smile to yourself.

“So what do you want to do for the rest of the night?”

“I kind of just want to stay in a watch a movie,” you tell him.

“Sounds good to me,” he smiles.

So that’s what you did you and Bucky sat on the bed and turned on the TV. You picked the movie and you went with one that no matter what kind of day you were having you always felt better after watching it. 

“You’re the one who was talking about this movie,” Bucky said as you turned on the Lion King.

“Yeah, it’s the best.”

“The dad, dies and the kid thinks it’s his fault, how the fuck is his the best movie?” Bucky asks.

“Did you even finish the movie?” You look at him.

“I stopped watching at the part where they start to eat bugs,” he admitted.

“Oh my god,” you say dramatically and Bucky rolls his eyes.

You sit and watch with him in silence, mostly. Every once in a while you start singing along with the song before remembering that Bucky was right next to you and probably would make fun of you for years to come if you kept singing so you would stop only to start back up again a few lines later. 

Once the credits started you looked at Bucky confused.

“What?” he asks.

“How’d you know that I was in trouble? I can hold my breath longer than most.”

“I’ve heard you brag multiple times about how long you can hold your breath underwater,” Bucky shrugs, “Besides I gave you longer than I would’ve given anyone else.”

“Why?”

“I know how capable you are, you train harder than anyone else on the team,” Bucky says flippantly and reaches for the remote.


	9. Chapter 9

When you awoke the next morning your pillow was harder than normal. You groaned and tried to squirm into a different, more comfortable position but there’s something restricting your movement. You open your eyes to find Bucky under you with his one arm wrapped around you. His breathing was deep and soothing. 

You lay your head back down on his chest and tilt your head to look at his face. He looked peaceful while he slept. You lay there and contemplate getting up to pee, because you have to pee, but you didn’t want to move. It wasn’t just you didn’t want to wake him up, it was that being there with him was unlike any experience that you’ve had.

Being there with Bucky in the early morning hours of the morning, with the feel of his skin on yours, his chest slowly rising and falling under your head. It was soothing.

After another minute of look at him, you get off of him trying not to wake him. You walk into the bathroom and stare at yourself in the mirror.

_ What the hell was that?  _ You silently ask yourself.  _ Get it together. _

You took a shower and walked out. Bucky was walking around still shirtless. You felt your heart speed up a little, and you inwardly scold yourself. 

“Need help?” You croak.

“Yes please, are you ok?” he asks.

“I’m fine, I just have-” you clear your throat, “-morning voice.”

“Morning voice?”

“Yeah when you wake up and your voice sounds different because you haven’t used your voice all night,” you say, “You probably would know what that was if you talked, ever.”

“I talk.”

“No, you bitch and moan,” you counter.

Bucky sits down and looks at you expectedly and you walk over to him. You start your daily routine of getting his arm on. While you were working, Bucky’s phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered.

You were too focused on his arm to try and eavesdrop on the other side of the conversation. 

“I’m aware sir... No... But -. . . Yessir... Of course... yessir,” Bucky says and looks at you.

He hangs up the phone but continues to stare at you.

“Was that Fury?” 

“Yeah,” Bucky says.

“What did he want?”

“To make sure we knew about the party that Victor was throwing tonight and to make sure that we were going,” He sighs.

“You don’t want to,” you state finishing attaching his arm.

“No because the last time you were near Victor, you almost died,” he says and stands from the chair.

“But I didn’t, which means we continue with the mission and so far my plan is still working. Why do we keep coming back to this one thing?” You demand.

“Because it almost got you killed.”

“No my own stupidity got me killed, I should’ve been more careful swimming around the boat,” you counter, “Why do you care anyway?”

“I don’t.”

“Then shut up about it,” you say getting in his face.

You back away and then text Lauren. She responds almost immediately with what to wear to the party and what time it started.

“There’s a black tie dress code,” you say.

“Excuse me?”

“For the party tonight,” you tell him.

“What kind of a party has a dress code?” He groans.

“A lot of them actually,” you say slightly confused by his confusion, “Do you have something that fits?”

“Do I look like the kind of bitch who has something on hand for a black tie event?” Bucky stares at you.

“You’ve been hanging out with the children too much.”

He rolls his eyes at you.

“Why do we even need to go shopping? We can just wear the same thing we wore to dinner,” he says.

“No, because that was just a few days ago, and that was just the fanciest thing we had at the time -”

“And we’ll just wash everything and wear it again,” he argues.

“We will need to go shopping because I’m not doing that,” you say grabbing your bag.

“Wait right now?”

“Can you think of better time?” You ask.

“Not really,” he admits.

“Well look what I have,” you say holding up a credit card.

“I’ve seen a credit card -”

“Oh, but I swiped this from Tony Stark himself so, today’s on him,” you say.

Bucky looks at you and forms a malicious smiles mirroring yours.

The shopping trip was a lot more fun than you or Bucky would’ve thought. Trying on ridiculous clothing only to show it to each other and take pictures. He ended up buying a dark navy suit with a floral print, that you forced him to get. It looked really good on him, but you weren’t going to tell him that. You felt no shame when you bought a flowy floor length dress that matched Bucky’s suit. The dress cost more than your entire wardrobe and probably more than anything else you will ever own.

“Do you wanna get lunch?” Bucky asked you on the walk back to the hotel room.

“Yes please,” you say and Bucky leads you to a small cafe.

All throughout lunch you catch Bucky looking at you in a way that he hadn’t before. 

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” You ask.

“You have something in your teeth,” he says and you go to fix it.

“Fuck you.”

“I told you about it!” He defends himself.

“Yeah after I’d talked to the waiter like 5 times,” you whine.

“Oh, boo-hoo.”

Back at the hotel room, you were getting ready when your phone rang. You looked at the caller I.D. and put the phone back down. A few seconds later the phone starts ringing again, once again you ignore it. When it starts ringing a third time you pick up the phone and answer it.

“Hello?” you say with fake innocence.

“Y/n, what the fuck did you do?” Tony’s voice booms through the speaker on your phone.

“What are you talking about?” 

“Y/n don’t play stupid. Why is there a charge on my credit card from Italy?” He asks.

“Why are Bucky and I in the fucking honeymoon suite?” You counter.

“How did you even get my credit card?” He asks changing the subject.

“You’re not very observant, and I’m really good at my job.”

“Ok well, have fun at the party tonight,” Tony sing-songs.

“I will,” you mocked his tone.

You hung up and put on the shoes that you had also bought today and prepare for the party.


	10. Chapter 10

“Stop fiddling with it,” you say shooing Bucky’s hand away from his suit.

“It feels funny,” he whispers.

“It only feels funny because you’re not too sure about wearing it, it didn’t feel funny when you tried it on at the store.”

“Maybe it shrank in the wash,” he whispers a little panicked. 

“Well that’s not possible because we haven’t washed it, and I resent the implication that I cannot do laundry,” you say and wrap your arm around his real one. 

“Ok but I look ridiculous,” he sighs.

“You look amazing, now c’mon we have a mission to do, hopefully from this party, we’ll get what we need and can go home.”

You and Bucky walked into the party that was already in full swing. You look around and finally notice the company. There are a lot of people who are known to work with HYDRA.

“This was a bad idea,” you finally admit to Bucky.

“Well it’s too late,” he whispers while waving to Victor, “Does anyone recognize us? Me?”

“Oh, great question, let me just pull out my mind reading skills oh wait,” you pull him closer so his ear is right next to your lips, “I’m not fucking Wanda.”

“I’m so glad you two could make it!” Lauren says wrapping her arms around the two of you.

“We’re so glad you invited us,” Bucky says.

“Well, go have fun, there’s food, dancing, and a lot of fun people to talk to,” she says and goes off to be a hostess.

Your paranoia was running at a million miles a minute. Running scenarios where Lauren also knows and it out for you, of all the ex-HYDRA people ganging up on you and Bucky. There were so many different scenarios running through your head you were distracted and not really paying attention.

“Y/n,” Bucky whispered to you.

“What?” His voice snapped you out of the daze you had been in.

“Calm down, I think we’ll be ok, and even if we weren’t your zoning out wouldn’t be very helpful to us now would it?”

“Fine but I need a drink,” you say and walk off to the table with the refreshments.

“So what’s a pretty face like you doing all by yourself?” A male voice that you didn’t recognize filled your ears.

You looked over to the source of the voice, the man standing uncomfortably close to you he had a smile that was too white and gave you the creeps. He gave you a weird vibe and you wanted to kick his ass but you had to keep up the cover, so you plaster a fake smile on your face and turn to him.

“Excuse me?” You ask as sickly sweet as you can.

“I was just wondering what it’ll take to get you to ditch this party with me,” his smile widens.

“The party just started,” he said.

“Excuse me,” Bucky interjected and then turned to you, “Y/n, join me for a dance.”

It wasn’t a question you realized as Bucky grabbed your hand and pulled you to the dance floor.

“Excuse us,” Bucky says to the creepy man.

Bucky puts his hand on your waist and holds your hand while you place your free hand on his shoulder. He spun you around in time with the music.

“Thank you,” you whisper.

“My pleasure, he was looking at you funny.”

“Funny how?” You ask.

“Like you were some trophy that he had to hang on his wall.”

“Well, thank you again.”

“Y/n, why do you always sound so surprised when I help you?” Bucky asks.

“Well,” you start but you notice the creepy guy walking away with Victor, “James, look.”

He spins you around so he can get a look at what you had seen. He dances with you to the edge of the dance floor and towards where Victor and the other one ran off to.

The two of you follow them down the hallway waiting for one of them to say something. You hear the footsteps stop and you find a place to hide and listen.

“Are you sure the new couple won’t disturb us or our plans?” The creepy guy asks.

“Yes, they’re just a couple we met, Lauren wanted to invite them,” Victor says.

“Does she know?”

“I’m keeping Lauren away from this you know that,” Victor reminds him.

“Ok, so what is the plan again?”

“Damn it, Ted, we’ve been over this a million times and it’s not that hard,” Victor sighs, “Secretary Ross will invite us to a fundraiser and then we will all meet and then continue to rebuild and then strike when the time is right.”

You make eye contact with Bucky who nods.

You check to make sure the coast is clear and then drag Bucky back to the dance floor.

“So,” Bucky whispers to you, “All we have to do is get through the rest of this party-”

“Then we can go home,” you smile.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Lauren is looking at us and we are supposed to be in love,” you remind him.

“Right.”

“Did you forget?”

“I was just preoccupied.”

“Oh yeah?” You ask.

“Yeah saving your ass at every turn is very hard work,” Bucky teases.

“It was one time!”

“Twice, I’m counting ten minutes ago.”

“I could’ve gotten myself out of that and-”

“You’re missing my point Y/n,” Bucky chuckles.

“So what’s your point?” You cock an eyebrow.

“My point is,” Bucky says, “I got your back.”

“And to think, I thought you hated me.”

“I thought you hated me,” Bucky says and then spins you and pulls you back in closer than you were before.

“Oh, I did hate you.”

“I hated you too then,” he smiles at you.

Your smile slowly fades as does his. He presses his palm against the small of your back getting you closer to him. He continues to do so until you can feel his breath tickling your lips. Your tongue darts out to lick your lips in anticipation of what you were hoping would come next.

“Y/n!” Lauren’s voice called you back to reality, “Come meet someone!” 

You slowly pull away from Bucky without looking away until he’s let go of your hand. You walk over to Lauren and met the person she was talking to before excusing yourself to get back to Bucky.

Once he got you back he kept you on the dance floor for most of the night only stepping away when Lauren or Victor called you away to introduce you to someone or another. You took every face in, memorizing every feature making sure that you would be able to identify every person if you ever came across them again.

After a few hours, you and Bucky excused yourselves claiming to be tired and needing to go to bed. Lauren and Victor bid you goodbye.

* * *

Bucky flung himself onto the bed once back at the hotel room. He barely registered it as you walked into the bathroom. He haphazardly kicked off his shoes and took off his suit jacket then laid back down on the bed.

Bucky felt the bed dip next to him. He rolled to his side to look at you. You were laying down with your eyes closed, Bucky 

“I think I lied earlier today,” he whispered. 

“Hmm?” you hum not bothering to open your eyes.

“I don’t think I ever hated you, I think I’ve been in love with you since day one,” Bucky whispers.

Your eyes fly open and you make eye contact with him.

“What?” You shift closer to Bucky.

“You heard me,” he whispers getting closer to you.

He props himself up using his elbows and hovers over you. He waits, giving you every opportunity to stop him, instead you grab his face and pull him down to you. When your lips finally meet you moan into him. Bucky let his hands roam your body, the tips of his fingers dig into your skin, you wrap your legs around his waist.

He continues to kiss you until it’s no longer just kissing until it progresses to a line that neither of you ever imagined crossing. Until he had explored every inch of your body.

“Bucky?” You whisper breathing heavily.

“Yeah,” he answers fully aware of the stupid smile across his face.

“Wake up.”

“What?” his smile disappears.

“Wake up.”

Bucky opens his eyes to see you laying in bed and his pants still on. He slowly gets off the bed careful not to wake you and goes into the bathroom. He splashes cold water on his face and then looks at himself in the mirror.

“What the fuck was that?” He asks himself.


	11. Chapter 11

“I talk to Fury and we can go home,” you tell Bucky as he walks out of the bathroom.

“Ok,” he clips.

“What’s your problem?” You chuckle.

“I don’t have one,” he says coldly, “Did Fury say when we would go home?”

“Umm tomorrow morning early, are you sure you’re ok?” You ask.

“I’m fine,” he says and then grabs his non-metal arm, “Will you help me put this on?”

“Um, yeah I guess,” you blink a few times a little shocked by his harshness.

“Thank you.”

The silence, while you put on his arm, is distracting and you take longer than usual.

“Please hurry up,” Bucky says.

“Ok, shit,” you say and finish up.

Once you’re done Bucky starts ignoring you again. The next hour you kept staring at Bucky trying to figure out what the fuck was happening.  

You heard your phone ding, and you looked at the message you got.

Lauren: Hey Victor and I are leaving tomorrow night and I want to see you before we leave. 

You: Yeah, it’ll have to be today because James and I leave tomorrow morning.

Lauren: Ok let's get lunch!

You: yes!

Lauren: Bring James too!

“Hey James,” You call to him and he glares at you.

“Yeah?”

Every time he spoke he sounded annoyed, which normally wouldn’t surprise you he’d been annoyed with you before but with the recent events, his sudden onset of annoyance continued to shock you.

“Victor and Lauren want to meet up for lunch today before we leave tomorrow,” you say.

“Great,” Bucky says, “We should pack before then.”

As much as you wanted to disagree with him, he was right. 

As you packed your bag, leaving out things that you would need for the rest of the day and the trip back, you continued to wonder what could’ve set him off. No matter which way you spun it you couldn’t think of anything you did that would set him off like this.

“C’mon,” you say after another hour or so, “We gotta go meet Lauren and Victor.”

Bucky doesn’t say anything as you lead him out the door. He’s silent the entire walk to the cafe and you stop him before you walk in.

“What?” He asks you.

“We’re supposed to be a couple and you are acting like I’ve kicked your dog or murdered you or something,” you tell him.

“Murdered me?”

“You know what I mean! You’ve been ignoring me all day.”

“Would you rather I stand around and fuck you all day?”

“What?” You laugh watching his cheeks turn bright red.

“Fuck with you,” he says as quickly as he can, “Fuck with you, not fuck you.”

“Whatever you say, honey,” you say and pat his cheek.

Lunch went better than you thought it would, with the exception of Bucky doing his best to blow your cover. At one point you got up to go to the bathroom and Lauren followed you.

“So what happened?” Lauren asked once the door to the bathroom closed behind you.

“What do you mean?” You look at her.

“I saw how the two of you were looking at each other on the dance floor, it’s the way I hope that Victor and I look at each other,” she smiles but it’s not her usual beaming smile, it’s a softer hopeful smile and it made her even more beautiful.

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” you chuckle.

“The look of love between the two of you, the way he looked at you was like he’d never want for anything else in his life. That you were all he ever needed in his life like when you left him to go get a drink he looked lost but then he found you at the drink table.”

“I don’t think that the look on his face was love,” was the only thing you said.

“How long have the two of you been dating?”

“Not that long why?” You ask a little scared.

“It was love,” she winks at you, “I know the look of love when I see it, and the two of you are so in love with each other, everyone can see it.” 

You could help but laugh.

“I don’t know about that.”

“But I do,” she says and walks out of the bathroom and back to the table.

You didn’t pay much attention to the rest of lunch. But every time Bucky would so much as glance at you, Lauren would catch your eye and make a face at you. Despite the constant knowing looks you were getting from Lauren, lunch was good and over a lot quicker than you would’ve thought.

* * *

Back at the hotel you and Bucky were getting ready to go to the airport.

“Can you hand me that?” You ask pointing to the bag with your toiletries in it.

He doesn’t say anything or look at you when he hands it to you. 

“Ok seriously, what’s your damage?” You demand.

“My what?” He looks at you confused.

“Your damage, you’re doing that thing again where you act like I stared you down while I kicked your dog.”

“I thought it was that you murdered me?”

“That’s not the fucking point you idiot!” You yell.

“Then what is the point?”

“The point is that you are ignoring me and I don’t know what I did? Did I accidentally say something to make you completely oblivious to my existence?”

“No,” he answers softly.

“Then what?”

“Why do you care?”

“Ya know I don’t know, I thought we were actually getting somewhere in this relationship but I guess. Being invisible to you is great. I love not being seen, it’s great,” you tell him with sarcasm dripping from your voice.

“What are you talking about?”

“I want to be seen by you, I know it sounds stupid but at least when we were poking fun at each other or fighting I didn’t feel like I was a waste of space.”

“You’re not a waste of space.”

“Really? Because you’re treating me like one.”

He opens his mouth to respond.

“No, let’s just pack and get on the plane and go home, please.”

You look at him and he nods.


	12. Chapter 12

Bucky knew that you were angry at him and he knew that ignoring you probably wasn’t the best way to deal with his feelings, but he didn’t even know what his feelings were yet. You didn’t talk to him the entire way back home and when you got back you quickly greeted the rest of the team and made your way up to your room. The rest of the team followed until it was just Natasha and Steve standing in front of him.

“What did you do?” Steve asks him.

“Nothing if anyone did anything it was Y/n,” Bucky growls and storms past them.

“We need to find out what happened between them,” Natasha tells Steve.

* * *

“Barnes! Y/l/n! Briefing room now!” Fury calls.

You sat on the opposite side of the table from Bucky, who is trying not to make eye contact with you. 

“Why are we here?” Bucky demands.

“Well in light of your information that you got on your trip, Y/n will attend the fundraiser and you Barnes will be surveillance,” Fury says and you smile to yourself.

“Oh great send Y/n in alone,” Bucky sighs.

“Barnes why don’t you fuck right off,” you angrily sneer at him.

“That’s not what I -” he starts.

“Both of you shut up. Barnes, you will be in a van outside but close by until Y/n calls for you, Y/n, you will signal Barnes when you are within striking distance of Ross, if we are going to take out HYDRA I want to rip out its heart,” Fury says.

You and Bucky sit there and stare at him waiting for more instructions.

“What are you still doing here?” Fury asks, “GO! Get out of my sight.”

You and Bucky stand and exit the room. Bucky walks next to you until you get to the elevator. The silence is awkward and you feel like you should say something but what is there to say? You’ve told him your piece it was his turn to speak, but you knew Bucky and he wasn’t a man of many words. So you didn’t see much talking in your future, at least not with Bucky; unless you caved and talked first but you were set on being as stubborn as you possibly could.

The next day you were looking at the dress that was laying on your bed with a note.

For tonight, knock ‘em dead - Tony

You smile at the note and get dressed making sure that you have weapons concealed on your person in case you get into a mess.  

Walking into the fundraiser was nerve-racking, you’d never been in a situation like this before. Where you were basically alone surrounded by potential HYDRA agents or enthusiasts. You knew Bucky was close by and he was reachable by com but you were still slightly freaking out. You walked around the party trying to nonchalantly avoid Secretary Ross and hopefully Victor as well.

Hours went by and nothing happened, you made your way to a place where you could see almost everything that was happening.

“Ya know,” crunch, “this would go a lot faster if you were to I don’t know, interact with the party goers.”

You roll your eyes at Bucky’s voice in your ear. He continues to ramble and eat loudly in your ear if you weren’t afraid of people around you hearing you would’ve scolded him, but you stayed silent.

“Sam said something to me the other day and I think he learned it from Peter or Shuri,” Bucky continues talking, “We were in the car and he saw one of those sign spinners, ya know like on the street telling you to go to where ever, and he paused for a moment before saying ‘I don’t even know which way the Quiznos is.’ But it wasn’t a Quiznos sign so I’m confused and I need you to help me figure out what has happened to the youths.”

By this point, the party had died down to just a few people and you watched as a group walked out with Ross.

“They’re on the move,” you whisper to Bucky, “I’m on their tail.”

“No wait for me to get there,” Bucky says with a mouth full of food.

“Too late,” you say following them at a safe distance.

“God damn it,” Bucky mutters.

The group walks into a room, Ross doesn’t close the door all the way and you silently watch and wait to see what happens. You pull the gun you had hidden and put the magazine in it. You feel a presence next to you, you knew who it was so you didn’t react.

“I told you to wait,” Bucky whispers in your ear.

“Shhh,” you whisper.

Just then Victor pulls out a gun and kills all of the people in the room except Ross. Bucky makes a move to burst through the door but you stop him. Bucky gives you a confused look, and in response, you held up one finger but didn’t take your eyes off of Victor and Ross.

“So, with them out of the way -” Victor says.

“We can build HYDRA the way we want to,” Ross gets a sickening smile on his face.

“Let’s get started,” Victor said and it looked like he was about to walk out the door so you back up a little and pull Bucky with you. You cock your eyebrow once Victor and Ross open the door and look at you.

“Hi y’all,” you wave your gun at them.

“Y/n?” Victor looks confused.

You aim your gun just as Victor does, you take a shot at him at the same time he does. Victor falls to the ground and you turn and aim your gun at Ross.

“Either you can come quietly or I can shoot,” you tell him and he raises his hands. In defeat.

“Are you ok?” You ask Bucky who had somehow ended up behind you.

“I’m fine,” he answers angrily.

He walks out from behind you and apprehends him, FBI agents you hadn’t realized were close by came and took him into custody.

Bucky talks to the agents and every once in a while he would give you a glare. After a minute you felt a pain in your side. When you touched it the pain got worse and then when you pulled your hand away there was blood on it.

“Ouch,” you say.

“Are you ok? Do you need a medic?” A peppy looking dude asked.

“Walk away pretty boy,” you almost yell at him.

Bucky is at your side immediately after you yell at the young FBI agent.

“Why are you so angry about getting hurt? It’s your fault,” Bucky whispers and leads you back to the van. You sit in the passenger side and Bucky hands you gauze and gets in the driver’s seat. He silent the whole way back. When you get there he practically drags you up to the med bay.


	13. Chapter 13

“Take off the dress,” he says.

“Excuse me?” You challenge.

“For the love of -,” he runs his hand through his hair, “just please take off your dress so I can help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” you tell him but reach behind you to unzip the dress.

You struggle for a moment before stopping.

“Can you help me?” you ask.

He unzips your dress and you feel his thumb brush up on your back making you gasp slightly. You shimmy out of the dress and let it fall to the ground leaving you in your underwear. You sit on the table and hiss at the pain.

“Stupid,” Bucky mutters.

“I was shot excuse me for feeling it,” you defend.

“That’s not what was stupid,” Bucky says cleaning up the wound, “It’s right here on the surface so I’ll give you a few stitches and you’ll be on your way.”

Bucky works on you. His touch sent tingles through your body almost like sparks. He finishes the stitches what he says finally sinks in. He puts a band-aid over the wound.

He stood up and started to clean up the supplies.

“What was the stupid thing?” You ask.

He looks at you and laughs.

“You got shot,” he says straight face.

“Occupational hazard,” you shrug.

“You stepped in front of me to take the bullet. Why?”

“What -”

“I was there and Victor pointed the gun at me. I saw it and you stepped in front of me. I could’ve easily taken that bullet,” he says.

“And it was fine I got it,” you remind him.

“Y/n you’re not listening to me,” he says clenching his fist.

“Then what is the issue?”

“You could’ve died.”

“But I didn’t-”

“Shut up,” he demands and you are shocked but stay quiet, “You keep doing this thing where you put yourself in danger, and I understand that boat thing wasn’t completely your fault. But tonight was, you just stepped in front of me and it wasn’t even like you noticed you just did out of what habit? Do you think that I can’t handle myself?”

“No, you fucking idiot, I didn’t want to see you hurt because -” you cut yourself off and turn away from him.

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me,” he says and grabs your hand and you turn to face him.

“Hey,” Tony’s voice rang through the room.

Bucky closes his eyes in annoyance and lets go of your hand. You step away from him and look at Tony.

“What happened to your clothing?” Tony asks.

“I was shot and Barnes was just helping patch me up,” you say.

Tony raises an eyebrow and you lean down to pick up the dress. You walk over to Tony and place the dress in his hands.

“Sorry about that,” you tell him.

“Are you ok?” Tony asks.

“I’m fine,” you say and walk away.

“What the hell did you do?” Tony asks Bucky.

“Nothing,” Bucky scoffs, “Absolutely nothing.”

* * *

It was team dinner and you were skipping it, which normally would’ve gotten you ridiculed by the team but you had just been shot so you got out of it. But that wasn’t really why you were skipping it.

You were in bed staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what was going on.

“So what’s this I hear about you skipping out on family dinner night?” Natasha bursts into your room.

“It’s team dinner night,” you remind her.

“Oh we’re family and you know it,” she says and lays next to you, “so why are you skipping?”

“I got shot yesterday.”

“Yeah I heard, how’d you manage to do that?”

“I stepped in front of Barnes,” you admit.

“Well that was dumb,” she laughs.

“I know.”

“He’s a supersoldier Y/n, he can survive a gunshot wound.”

“I know,” you repeat.

“So why do you think you stepped in front of him?”

“I don’t know, maybe because I felt like I owed him. He saved my life in Italy.”

“He did?” She turns her head toward you.

“Yeah, so maybe it was that.”

“Full offense but that’s the single dumbest thing that’s ever come out of your mouth. You really think you took a bullet because he ‘saved you in Italy’?”

“Yeah-” you say slowly.

“Then you’re a bigger idiot than he is.”

“What?”

“Please go talk to that mess of a man,” she says as she gets off your bed.

You sit up and watch her walk towards the door.

“I wouldn’t know what to say.” Your words stop her from walking out the door.

“Well maybe he has something to say,” she says as she walks out the door. 

So you went to Bucky’s room, his door was closed and you just stare at it. You don’t know how long you stood there before the door opened and you stood in front of Bucky wide-eyed.

“What’s up?” He looks at you confused.

“You scare me,” you blurt.

“What?”

“You scare me, the reason I stepped in front of you was because I was afraid.”

“That doesn’t make sense, why would you take the bullet if you were afraid?”

You push him into his room and close the door behind you.

“I wasn’t afraid for me,” you wait for him to say something but he doesn’t, “I was afraid for you.”

“I can take a bullet.”

“And what if you couldn’t? What if you hadn’t been able to take it? So I stepped out in front of you.”

“I am more cut out to take a bullet than you are,” he says, “What if you hadn’t made it?”

“You’re a better addition to the team than I am -”

“That’s not the point!”

“Then what is?”

“The point is you’re not paying attention,” he says stepping towards you until you’re pressed up against the door.

He doesn’t break eye contact with you.

“Not paying attention to what?”

“To what I’m saying,” he says.

“So make it clearer,” you whisper.

He places his hands on the sides of your face and brings yours to his and kisses you, it was an urgent and desperate kiss. Like he was trying to tell you everything in one kiss, which was a lot of pressure for one kiss. His metal hand slid down from your face to your lower back and pulled you closer to him, it was enough to make you melt into the kiss.

He pulls away too soon for your liking.

“Did that clear things up?” he asks.

“No,” you whisper and pull him back to you.

You press your body up against him, trying to pull him as close to you as possible. Just as you feel him try to deepen the kiss you hear a knock at his door.

“Hey Buck,” Steve’s voice makes you break the kiss and distance yourself from him.

You step aside and watch silently and carefully as Bucky opens the door.

“Yeah?” Bucky’s breath is still labored.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m fine Steve, what do you want?”

“You said you’d work out with me today,” Steve answers slowly.

“Oh yeah,” Bucky takes a moment to look down at his outfit which was something he could work out in, “let’s go.”

He left his room without so much as a glance to you. Once his door closes behind him you let out the breath you’d been holding. You brush your fingers against your lips, the feel of his lips lingered on yours. 


	14. Chapter 14

You stood in Bucky’s room unsure of whether or not you should wait or not. It felt odd to be in here, this was the first time that you’d been in here. It wasn’t completely bare like you thought it would be, but it wasn’t super decorated but you could see his personality. You tell a lot by just looking around his room, you could tell what his favorite color was (a dark blue that was looked black in some light) and that he ran hot at night because there was only a flat sheet on his bed.

You panicked and rushed out of his room and back to yours.

You close the door behind you and send a text to Natasha.

* * *

“Actually Steve,” Bucky stopped walking, “I need to go back to my room for something.”

“Ok, well I’ll meet you in the gym,” Steve says turning back towards the gym.

Bucky didn’t respond because he knew that he wasn’t going to go to the gym. He wasn’t sure why he just walked away, maybe it was the shock of actually having your lips on his or how intoxicating you were to him. All he knew was that he needed to get back to you as soon as possible.

He opened the door to his room.

“Y/n?” He asks looking around the room only to find that you’d gone.

He walked out of his room and made his way to your door. He knocks and then waits a moment, you don’t answer so he knocks again. 

“Y/n?” He calls.

“She left dude,” Sam says leaning up against the wall next to your door holding a box of nilla wafers and munching on them.

“What do you mean left?”

“I don’t know man,” Sam said a mouth full of food, “She walked in looking kind of pissed and then walked out looking hot as hell.”

“How hot?” Bucky couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“Dude,” Sam raises his eyebrows and gives Bucky a look.

“Oh shit,” Bucky mutters under his breath.

“Yeah you fucked up big time,” Sam laughs.

“I didn’t do anything,” Bucky lies.

“Oh, ok sure thing Barnes,” Sam rolls his eyes and pushes himself off the wall.

“I didn’t!” Bucky yells trying not only to convince Sam but also himself. 

Bucky stood in silence outside your door. He didn’t move for a while, he just stood there. He stood there until he got a text from Natasha.

**I need your help. Y/n is being stubborn and she’s stronger than she looks.**

Bucky got the address from Nat and made his way to the bar. He walked in and saw you picking a fight with a dude twice your size.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was put on this earth to please and serve you!” Your voice filled the bar.

Bucky quickly made his way through the crowd over to you.

“Listen here you little -” the dude starts.

“Woah,” Bucky steps in between you and the guy, “Let’s just all take a breath.

“Get out of the way fucker, if she wants to fight let’s fucking fight!” The guy bellows.

“You couldn’t take me if you tried!” You yell.

“Ok, we’re going now,” Bucky says flinging you over his shoulder.

As he walks out the door with you, you stare down the guy and flip him off.

Bucky walks out of the bar into the pouring rain. Bucky doesn’t put you down until your at least a block away.

“What the hell was that?” 

“I got a lot of pent up anger -” you growl and look around, “Where’s Natasha?”

“Doesn’t matter, you’re talking to me,” you could tell he’s angry from the look in his eyes.

“Fine, I was angry and he was pissing me off. I threaten to beat his ass and he didn’t believe me, and then you come along with your knight in shining armor act and stopped me from teaching him a lesson.”

“No, I stopped you from going to jail for murder.”

“Why’d you walk away?” You blurt.

“What?” His voice is softer now.

“After we kissed, you walked away without even looking at me,” you say no longer full of rage.

He doesn’t say anything for a while, he just stands there and stares at you.

“Honestly?” He takes a step towards you, “You fuck with my mind so much.”

“But I-”

“No. It’s my turn to talk,” he waits for you to say something but you stay quiet, “Ever since that plane ride you’ve been fucking with my brain. I didn’t notice at first, I thought it was just the mission or I was finally learning to not hate you. I think that’s why I was so against your plan, which was perfect by the way. I was just scared to put you anywhere near harm's way, and yes I know it’s the job you signed up for.”

You want to say something but for once you can’t think of anything.

“And then that day we went on the boat, and you didn’t come up for air -” he stops and takes your hands in his and pulls you closer to him, “Every time you put yourself in danger I lose the ability to think about anything but you. And when you kissed me all logic left my brain.”

“That implies that you had logic, to begin with,” you whisper.

“Y/n,” he scoffs placing his forehead on yours.

You were looking at him and his eyes were on the ground.

“Sorry, habit.”

His eyes finally meet yours making your heart stop.

“What were you going to say?”

“When?”

“When you said you didn’t want to see me hurt and I asked why and then Tony came in.”

“That I’m in love with you, and that scares me, because what if you don’t love me back?” 

The corners of his mouth pull up into a smile.

“How could I not love you?”

He lets go of your hands to pull your body flush against his, and kisses you. Before anyone could disturb you this time you wrap your arms around him and deepen the kiss. He pulls away sooner than you would’ve liked.

“This isn’t a dream is it?” He asks.

“No,” you answer confused.

“Perfect,” he smirks and flags down a taxi to take you home.


End file.
